Mr. Independence

Right from the start Austen absolutely hated to be restrained in any way. He hated being swaddled in the nursery and would immediately free his arms after the nurses re-wrapped him. He really hated the car seat for the first year of his life and I think it was because his arms were strapped down. In fact, now that I think about it, those last few months in utero must have been hell!!! (For you and me both buddy.) The signs all pointed to this happening, so I shouldn't be surprised one bit, but I have to say the first time he pushed me back and told me "no" so I wouldn't follow him, I was a little stunned. Now that it's started happening on a daily basis I kinda have to laugh about it. It really is quite funny. He always wants to do everything himself. If Sophie needs to go out he'll run as fast as he can to the door. He will always turn around to make sure I'm not doing the same and if I am, he'll run back tell me "no" while pushing me backwards and run on to the door checking back periodically to make sure I'm still in the same place. He also does this whenever he hears the garage door open. He runs to the door saying daddy, but he wants to go alone.

The other day he put on my slippers and said he was ready to go. I think he meant in the car, but he didn't want me following him. Luckily the door to the garage was locked otherwise you probably would have heard about a 1 year old driving the family car on the news. ( I am already preparing myself for some version of that to happen. He knows exactly what to do to make the car go.......)

Now that he can open the freezer (the child lock thing for it broke) he thinks he can just help himself to whatever he wants. The other day I found him eating a frozen chicken nugget!
This one was too cute to stop, so I took pictures instead.

He even got the spoon and took off the lid.